Refactoring Rails: Introduction

I have loved green-fielding apps in Rails for years. I think my first Rails app, a timesheet for my wife’s employees, was in sub 1.0 Rails. I ended up migrating that app through every major version of Rails up to 3.0. Then, she sold her business.

I used to work for a really great consultancy in Seattle, called Ubermind. I was one of two Rails specialists in a sea of iOS devs. It was so much fun to crank our api’s or backend services for client’s iOS apps. My longest term project was a legacy-maintenance gig that eventually turned into a very successful rewrite. Ah, the good times.

Along the way I’ve learned a few tricks of the trade when dealing with legacy apps or migrating to new Rails versions. I hope to add a few of those tips here.